Table of contents:
- Reasons to prevent dengue fever
- Why is vitamin C important for dengue fever?
- Increase your intake of vitamin C to prevent dengue fever
Dengue fever is a disease that is familiar to Indonesian society. Even so, dengue fever becomes a dangerous disease if adequate medical measures are not taken. Therefore, you need to make efforts to prevent dengue fever. Not only for individuals, but also for those closest to you. In addition to maintaining the cleanliness of the surrounding environment, preventing dengue fever can also be done by increasing the consumption of one type of nutrient, namely vitamin C.
Reasons to prevent dengue fever
Reporting from the official website of the WHO (World Health Organization), the incidence of dengue fever has drastically increased worldwide in the last decade. A study on the prevalence of DHF estimates that 3.9 billion people are at risk of being infected with the dengue virus (DHF). This number is drawn from 128 countries and about 70% of them are Asian.
Half a million patients are hospitalized each year for dengue fever. Although most recover after two to seven days, dengue fever can become more severe and may result in organ damage, bleeding, dehydration and even death. Therefore, preventing dengue fever is an important matter for the public to pay attention to, especially in the Asian region.
Then the symptoms caused by dengue fever include the following:
- Severe headache
- Pain in the back of the eye
- Nausea
- Muntal
- Muscle and joint pain
- Swollen glands
- Rash
DHF enters a more critical phase, namely on the third to seventh day. At this time, when the fever starts to go down there are several danger signs that can appear. The danger signs of this more severe dengue include:
- Severe pain in the stomach
- Vomiting continuously
- Quick breath
- Bleeding gums
- Fatigue
- Restless
- Vomiting blood
Why is vitamin C important for dengue fever?
Vitamin C can protect the body from viruses effectively and safely because this vitamin can be consumed in high doses. Dengue fever is a disease caused by a viral infection, so vitamin C which is a natural agent can effectively prevent and treat the infection.
However, of course there are rules for vitamin C to be effective as an anti-infective agent. You need to give vitamin C to people who have dengue fever as soon as possible in high doses and over a long period of time.
Sometimes vitamin C is considered inadequate or effective at preventing or treating infections including dengue fever. This is often due to insufficient doses and a short duration of administration.
There is some clinical evidence on the use of vitamin C to treat viral infections. Vitamin C can be given in high doses as long as it uses intravenous (infusion) and oral (by mouth) methods.
Research in 2017 was conducted to analyze the effects of vitamin C in treating people with dengue fever. Of the 100 patients who received oral vitamin C intake, there was a greater increase in platelet counts compared to patients who did not receive vitamin C.
This increase in platelet count is then a factor that affects the duration of hospital stay. This study shows that there is a relationship between vitamin C intake and the duration of hospitalization of dengue fever patients.
Increase your intake of vitamin C to prevent dengue fever
Vitamin C can help in fighting dengue fever as well as in prevention efforts. Moreover, Indonesia is one of the regions in Asia that is prone to this disease. To get enough vitamin C, you can eat food sources of vitamin C.
From the data reported on MedicalNewsToday, of the 20 types of food mentioned, guava is the highest source of vitamin C. The good news is, guava is not difficult to find in Indonesia because it is a tropical fruit. You can consume this fruit in the form of juice if you want to be more practical.
A study from a university in Indonesia emphasizes the potential benefits of guava juice for people with dengue. Vitamin C in guava has the potential to increase blood platelets while maintaining the immune system or the body's immune system to fight dengue virus infection.
Plus, guava juice also contains flavonoids which function to inhibit the virus from growing or replicating so that it can prevent bleeding due to damaged platelets due to dengue fever virus attack.
The first step in preventing dengue fever is to stop the Aedes Aegypti mosquito from breeding. After that, increasing the consumption of vitamin C can help you avoid dengue.
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